


edit out the sad parts

by ikuzonos



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: 999 Spoilers, Character Study, Gen, Major Character Undeath, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 14:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16327487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikuzonos/pseuds/ikuzonos
Summary: You are twelve years old.





	edit out the sad parts

You are twelve when you die.

But you don’t die. Not really. You die, but you are still physically present. Almost.

You are a spectre. A phantom. You exist, but you are little more than a memory. By all realm of logic, you should not exist.

In order to live, you must first die.

And that, when you think about it, makes no sense. But it is easy to rationalize to others.

By others, you mean Aoi. It has always been Aoi. The only one who understands the unstable time loop that is keeping you hanging on by just a fragment.

Aoi has seen you die more times than you can count. In every failed timeline, he has screamed.

You think it’s him screaming. It might be your own voice, echoing back as you burn, burn, _burn_.

You solve the puzzle and open the door.

  
You are twelve when you become God.

In a way. Really, you are twelve and you are dead, and you do not believe in a higher power, because no deity would be so unkind as to let you die.

But there must be something. Because you survived and buried yourself in Aoi’s arms.

And you are not God, but in nine years, you will be. In nine years, you will become Zero who is God and the Devil and an angel and a demon.

In nine years, you will kidnap and throw nine people (seven innocents) into the same psychological game that killed you and made you into God.

In nine years, your childhood best friend will telepathically save your life.

Except he won’t, because he’s already done that. Junpei has already saved you, already completed the impossible, and you are the one who must ensure your own survival.

But you are dead. You cannot save the dead.

The incinerator stops.

  
You are twelve and your home is a grave.

You can see it in all the bad futures that Junpei survives, because he visits your tombstone. Lays flowers on it and stares in confusion.

Aoi tells you that it will be okay. That there is light, and it will find you.

(You can’t tell if it’s a metaphor, or if he refers to the man you will call Snake in nine years.)

The heat from the incinerator beats down on your back. Your fever rages.

There is no way out. You are a child and you are a ghost and you are on your way to becoming a God.

  
You are twelve.

You ~~do not~~ survive.


End file.
